This is a new practice guide adapted from the five AI uses I’m never giving back. Pick the option closest to something already happening in your life.
Choose one trial
- Make something for an audience of one. Try a tiny story premise, a puzzle, or a visual idea for your own enjoyment. Give it a time limit. Notice whether making and improving it is interesting, not just whether the first output impresses you.
- Rehearse a conversation. Ask AI to play the other person for three exchanges, then point out where your explanation was unclear. Supply only what you know; the simulation can’t know the person’s private thoughts.
- Prepare for an appointment. Use the prompt below to arrive with questions and a clearer account of what you want to understand.
- Try a small personal tool. Describe one input and one useful output. Use the app-idea filter before adding features.
- Explore a change. Ask for one question at a time about what you want, what you’ve tried, and what got in the way. Correct any interpretation that doesn’t fit. You can leave a question unanswered.
A ten-minute appointment trial
Start with an ordinary meeting, such as discussing an estimate with a contractor. Remove personal details you don’t need to share. Use excerpts you can compare with the original.
I'm preparing for a meeting and want to use the time well.
Who I am meeting:
What I want to understand or decide:
Relevant excerpt from the paperwork:
Explain the excerpt in plain language. Keep what the document explicitly says
separate from assumptions. Point me to the relevant sentence for each claim.
List what you cannot determine from this excerpt.
Then suggest the three most useful questions to ask the person I'm meeting.
Do not decide for me or treat your interpretation as confirmed.Compare its explanation with the original. Cross out unsupported conclusions. Bring the questions to the actual meeting. For professional matters, the preparation is there to support that conversation, not replace the professional’s assessment.
Decide whether to keep it
Write three short answers afterward:
- What did this make possible or easier?
- What effort, correction, or cost did it add?
- Did it take away any part I wanted to do myself?
Choose repeat, change, or leave it. “Leave it” is useful information. Keep a note in the experiment notebook if you’d like to compare attempts over time.